Lightkeeper
Well-Known Member
What do you think the true meaning of this story is? Do other religions have similar stories?
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I'd be leery of basing an opinion on so little information.I have read that the story of Jonah was a piece of protest literature of it's time, (Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, pg. 72, Spong). The author was questioning the prevailing prejudices against anyone who was not Jewish. The Jewish thought of the day was that God did not like anyone outside the Jewish people. The main character of the story, Jonah, believed this as well, and if I'm remembering the story correctly, he refused to deliever a message to the people of Ninevah, because they were not Jewish. After his adventures inside the belly of a great fish (I have also read that the great fish is only called a whale in folklore, not in the Scriptures), Jonah finally realized that it God's love was for all, not just the Jewish people.
It's too bad he was vomited out of the fish/sea just as nasty as he was before and smelling like fish as well.Jesus referred to Jonah and the Great Fish as a foretelling of his resurrection. Jonah was in the Fish 3 days and 3 nights.
Another level I can see here is the separation from and return to the inner Divine. The fish is a religious symbol. In evolutionary theory we came from the sea. Jonah returned to the sea to be reborn.
Sometime God will just have an *** talk to you straighten you out. (Balam's donkey).how about don't **** god off or you'll get swallowed by a big fish?
Are you sure he wasn't the "most surley of the messengers?"37:139 And Yunus was most surely of the messengers.
Either that or it was a story about a misdirectioned man who got swallowed by a big fish in order to get him to do God's bidding.The story of Jonah and the Whale is a 'metaphorical spiritual lesson' portraying "the process of becoming and fulfilling' our own individual reasons and purposes for "being".
I have read that the story of Jonah was a piece of protest literature of it's time, (Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, pg. 72, Spong). The author was questioning the prevailing prejudices against anyone who was not Jewish. The Jewish thought of the day was that God did not like anyone outside the Jewish people. The main character of the story, Jonah, believed this as well, and if I'm remembering the story correctly, he refused to deliever a message to the people of Ninevah, because they were not Jewish. After his adventures inside the belly of a great fish (I have also read that the great fish is only called a whale in folklore, not in the Scriptures), Jonah finally realized that it God's love was for all, not just the Jewish people. (quote=morningstar7)We fail to realize the story of Jonah was a story that told about disobiediance, it also tells how what we do can affect the lives of others. God gave Jonah a message to deliver to the people of Ninevah, because they were a corrupt people but Jonah ran away from his calling and refused:no: hidding on a ship,trying to run away from God but he soon found out you cant hide from the Almighty, not realizing that his disobiediance put everyone else at risk. All those on the ship were suffering many different hardships and they could not understand why, and then they realized that Jonah had disobeyed God whom they had no belief in. Eventually they threw Jonah off the ship:thud: and they themselves became believers in the Most High, because God stopped their suffering just as he promised, but only after releasing Jonah/ and Jonah was placed in the seclusion of the belly of a fish until he repented:sorry1: and then the fish threw him back to finally do the task God had given to him. The moral of the story what we do or do not do in disobiediance affects others around us, and good always comes from a bad situation, and when we see the powerful workings of God it changes us.
From the Jewish Encyclopedia ...I have read that the story of Jonah was a piece of protest literature of it's time, (Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, pg. 72, Spong). The author was questioning the prevailing prejudices against anyone who was not Jewish. The Jewish thought of the day was that God did not like anyone outside the Jewish people. The main character of the story, Jonah, believed this as well, and if I'm remembering the story correctly, he refused to deliever a message to the people of Ninevah, because they were not Jewish. After his adventures inside the belly of a great fish (I have also read that the great fish is only called a whale in folklore, not in the Scriptures), Jonah finally realized that it God's love was for all, not just the Jewish people.
It's a very, very short book and readily available online. There is little reason to rely on memory. Could you show where " he refused to deliever a message ... because they were not Jewish?"The Jewish thought of the day was that God did not like anyone outside the Jewish people. The main character of the story, Jonah, believed this as well, and if I'm remembering the story correctly, he refused to deliever a message to the people of Ninevah, because they were not Jewish.
Yes.(I have also read that the great fish is only called a whale in folklore, not in the Scriptures)